Web Resources

Health Literacy is defined in the Institute of Medicine report, Health Literacy: A Prescription to End Confusion, as “the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions.”

This National Action Plan to Improve Health Literacy seeks to engage organizations, professionals, policymakers, communities, individuals, and families in a linked, multi-sector effort to improve health literacy. The plan is based on the principles that (1) everyone has the right to health information that helps them make informed decisions and (2) health services should be delivered in ways that are understandable and beneficial to health, longevity, and quality of life.

Part of the “Clear Communication” program of the National Institutes of Health, “Making Health Communication Programs Work,” [The “Pink Book”] comprehensively addresses clear communication and reflects the best practices of all NIH Institutes and Centers as a shared resource. This book describes a practical approach for planning and implementing health communication efforts; it offers guidelines, not hard and fast rules.

Medical concepts and language are very complex. People need easily understandable health information regardless of age, background or reading level. Here are guidelines to help you create easy-to-read health materials.

CDC’s Gateway to Communication and Social Marketing Practice provides resources to help build your health communication or social marketing campaigns and programs. Whether you are looking for tips for analyzing and segmenting an audience, choosing appropriate channels and tools, or evaluating the success of your messages or campaigns, it’s all here in one place!

Podcasts, Blogs, and Newsletters

Health Literacy Out Loud (HLOL) podcasts are a lot like radio shows. You can listen in as Helen Osborne interviews those in-the-know about health literacy. You will hear why health literacy matters and learn practical ways to help.

Every week, we’ll have a new post related to health literacy. These posts will range from getting around tricky jargon terms to enhancing text with visuals and musings on plain language, design, usability, typography, and much more. Basically, if it’s related to health literacy, it’s fair game.

Books

This authoritative MLA guide will help you understand the vital role that medical, hospital, public, and health libraries are uniquely qualified to play in improving health literacy. You will learn innovative ways to use collection development, the reference interview, community health information, and Web resources, as well as strategies for working with special needs populations, including seniors, the disabled, ESL groups, and people of diverse social and cultural backgrounds.

Comprised of fifteen chapters written by experienced consumer health librarians, The Medical Library Association Guide to Providing Consumer and Patient Health Information is designed for library and information science graduate students as well as librarians new to health and medical librarianship, regardless of library setting. It is comprehensive in scope, covering all aspects of consumer and patient health and medical information from their humble, grassroots beginnings to the ever-evolving applications of new technology and social media.

Advancing Health Literacy addresses the crisis in health literacy in the United States and around the world. This book thoroughly examines the critical role of literacy in public health and outlines a practical, effective model that bridges the gap between health education, health promotion, and health communication.

This book describes the key principles and strategies of effective health communication presented in a simple, informal manner. The second edition is updated to reflect current health literacy research and practice with new information about timely health literacy topics.

Organized into four distinct sections, this book offers findings and raises questions to lead to progressive communication and investigation around the issue of health literacy in the context of the individual, the community, and patient-physician interaction.